Donald Trump is apparently still a Birther.
A new report claims that the president has been privately questioning whether Barack Obama’s birth certificate may be a fake, a stance he had famously taken years ago when exploring a bid for the 2012 presidential election. Trump publicly questioned whether Obama’s birth certificate was legitimate, leading Obama to release the long-form version of his birth certificate.
In a report from the New York Times , an unnamed U.S. Senator said that Trump still brings up the issue in private and believes that Obama may have been born outside of the United States. The report noted that advisers close to Trump said the president continually talks about conspiracy theories with no basis in fact, like his idea that millions of illegal immigrants voted for his opponent, robbing him of the popular vote.
That includes questioning the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump appeared to brag about sexually assaulting women. The report noted that Trump believes the tape may have been faked, despite having acknowledged last year that it was him on the video and apologizing for it, The Hill noted.
Donald Trump’s history as leader of the Birther movement has come back to haunt him in recent weeks. Though Trump admitted during the 2016 campaign that he no longer believes Obama was born outside of the country, he still raised the issue a number of times over the course of the campaign to that point, leading to criticism from political opponents.
Others have claimed that the conspiracy theory is rooted in racism, based on the idea that America’s first black president was not a “real” American. Obama himself made fun of Trump for pushing the conspiracy theory, lacing into the real estate mogul at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011.
President Trump continues to question former President Obama’s birth certificate, The New York Times reports https://t.co/vZUXbKaTZz pic.twitter.com/a2XVHQ7Cnz
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 29, 2017
Trump’s opponents have also criticized his Birther history during his tenure as president. When Trump took a trip to Hawaii earlier this month, he was met by protesters who reminded Trump that the state was Barack Obama’s real birthplace. As the Independent noted, Trump was greeted by protesters holding signs that read, “Welcome to Kenya” when he touched down in Hawaii.
